March for Our Lives, the gun control group started by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students following the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday released their comprehensive gun control plan, know as the "Peace Plan."
"We don’t have to live like this: in fear for our lives and our families. The federal government has failed in its responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of the public with regard to the nation’s gun violence epidemic. The time for comprehensive and sweeping reform is now," the group said on the plan website. "We need ambitious leadership throughout the whole of government to stand in opposition to the gun lobby and industry in order to secure a peaceful America for generations to come."
They established the acronym CHANGE to represent their agenda:
Change the standards of gun ownership.
Halve the rate of gun deaths in 10 years.
Accountability for the gun lobby and industry.
Name a Director of Gun Violence Prevention.
Generate community-based solutions.
Empower the next generation.
Specifically the group wants:
• a national licensing and registry system. Specifically, gun owners would have to go through in-person interviews with law enforcement, provide personal references, obtain firearm safety training and wait 10 days for each firearm purchase. Licenses would expire every year and requirements would have to be fulfilled again.
• to require gun owners to pay an annual licensing fee.
• to impose higher fees on bulk firearms and ammo purchases.
• to raise the gun ownership age to 21.
• to expand the list of reasons to prohibit someone to own a firearm. Prohibited possessors would include: individuals with felony convictions, any level of domestic violence offenders (protective orders and misdemeanors), individuals with a documented history of violence, individuals convicted of hate crimes, individuals convicted of stalking, and individuals that make a credible and public threat against a specific person or institutions such as schools, churches, or workplaces.
• to prevent gun owners from obtaining more than one firearm per month.
• to prohibit online firearm and ammo sales and transfers, including for parts.
• a ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and other "weapons of war."
• a national gun buy-back and disposal program.
• to require safe gun storage on all firearms.
• to require gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm to law enforcement within 72 hours.
• to declare a national emergency around gun violence and create a goal to reduce gun injuries and deaths by 50 percent in 10 years.
• to reexamine District of Columbia v. Heller, which says a person has a right to own a firearm in the home for self protection.
• to have the Federal Elections Commission (FECT) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigate the NRA.
• to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
• to appoint a National Director of Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) who reports directly to the president.
• to provide $250 million annually for research by the CDC and other federal agencies on gun violence prevention.
• urban violence reduction programs, suicide prevention programs, domestic violence prevention programs, mental and behavioral health service programs.
• to automatically issue voter cards to Americans once they turn 18
• to create a "Safety Corps," similar to the Peace Corps.
What these kids are proposing is not only radical but extremely dangerous to the Second Amendment. In so many words, they're calling for firearm confiscation. They won't come out and say it directly but they want to make it as hard as possible for gun ownership to be an American right.
When they say things like Heller needs to be "reexamined" they mean the right to self-defense and the ability to have a firearm in the home needs to be rescinded. It means they want the Supreme Court to become a legislative body when Congress doesn't side with them. That's a direct threat to every right guaranteed to us in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member